02.03.08 please make checks payable to…

It seems to me that the grocery store is the last institution that willingly accepts checks. I can’t ever recall a time that I opted to pay anything by check with the invention of the debit card. Credit issues and identity theft aside, I really don’t know why you wouldn’t chose to use it.

In some last minute Superbowl party shopping, a man in front us purchased a few items and paid by check. My first problem is that he was in the 10 items or less aisle. He had more than 10, and he was paying by check, which completely wasted about 5 extra minutes of him writing it out, signing it, and balancing his checkbook in line. Secondly, he was a man. I say this because it’s not like he’s carrying around a giant purse that he can easily fit his checkbook into – dude keeps it in his back pocket. I rarely carry mine for that very reason, it takes up valuable real estate in my bag.

The 10 items or less aisle is designed to be considerate of those buying a few items. The point is to be considerate of the time of others, and balancing a checkbook isn’t the way. I also have to question why someone with a valid bank account wouldn’t use a debit card since they function the same way – typically the debit card is granted with a valid checking account, and stores usually don’t accept checks from new bank accounts.

If stores are still going to accept checks, of which I’m not completely in favor, I think at the very least appropriate signage is necessary – either ’10 items or less and no checks’, or a simple, ‘please be considerate of people around you. It is rude to balance your checkbook when there are 4 other people in line.’

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3 comments

The only thing I pay by check is my rent. My checks still have my address on them from 5 years ago because I use so few I never need to reorder them. I personally think a lot of people who use checks in the grocery store are floating them b/c they don’t actually have the money in the account to use a debit card, but will by the time the check is cashed. I think stores should start calling in and verifying checks to discourage people from using them. Although I would be really pissed if I had to wait behind someone while their check was verified.

This is a Euro citizen writing, so bear with me. Nobody has seen any checks on this side of the big pond since Duran Duran had their three consecutive #1 hits on the UK top 20 and Boy George sounded like mezzo on cough syrup. Private checks, that is. Bank checks are still around, but they can’t be used in any other way but to cash them at the very bank.

I was recently mailed a check drawn in a major American bank. Trying to deposit it on my European account, I was looked at with pity. “Sir, nobody uses checks anymore. Besides, this is not a bank check so we’ll have to put it through **an international bill collecting service** and it might take up to 6 months before the funds are on your account”. So, they’re clearly discouraging people. Are private checks even valid more than 3 months? I dunno.

At the same time, a European wide debit card (NOT credit card) system was introduced a while ago — and! — paying bills within the 27 member countries of the EU is becoming much much easier and cheaper soonish. Oh the possibilities! Dirt-cheap DVDs from exotic lands like Romania, or cases of champagne directly from the winery… which gets us to another topic: the customs. But that’s worth another posting. Someday.

Eurotrash, welcome, and that is an unfortunate name. You know, it seems that banking has been around for long enough that as a universal society we would have figured it out by now. I did some freelance work for a German orchestra and the same thing happened – and I was completely unprepared for the hassle that ensued.

As I do not travel internationally often, so I’m unfamiliar with the problems of customs except for the time I traveled with someone who brought free weights as carryon. I was more annoyed and embarrassed that I was in the same party as this person rather than at the custom system in general. I think he deserved everything he got. I would love to hear your thoughts, so perhaps we could make a guest blog out of this.